Kiwi Startup Launches World-First Beverage After Breakthrough By Scientists

A Kiwi startup will launch a global-first beverage product this week, designed to reduce plastic pollution created by the world’s biggest drinks companies and commercialise a breakthrough made by scientists after seven years of research.

Incrediballs, started by Ethique founder and former CEO Brianne West following her exit from the firm, is the world’s first plastic-free, effervescent drink tablet. The innovation was made possible through a stabilisation process developed using pioneering co-crystal technology developed at the University of Bradford.

Designed to dissolve in water or other liquids to create a full-flavoured, sugar-free 350ml drink, the new format eliminates the need for bottled beverages entirely, and offers a sustainable alternative to the 583 billion single-use plastic bottles produced globally every year in the $1.42tn soft drink market, of which less than 10% are effectively recycled.[1][2]

West says United Nations data shows worldwide, companies have the capacity to produce 20,000 PET bottles every second and single-use drinks containers now account for 45% of the litter on an average urban street.[3]

“When safe water is literally on tap in most people’s kitchens in places like Aotearoa, Australia and the UK, it makes no sense to ship it around the world in plastic bottles.

“We have been misled into believing bottled water is safer and healthier, but this just isn’t true in most cases,” she says.

West says the ambition is not to create a niche eco-product, but to fundamentally rethink how drinks are made, transported and sold.

“We’re trying to remove the assumption that beverages must be shipped as liquid in plastic,” she says.

West, a qualified biochemist, says the technology behind the new product represents a significant step forward as traditional effervescent tablets are fundamentally unstable and must be sealed in plastic or metal.

She says the stabilisation challenge solved by the University of Bradford has long frustrated global pharmaceutical companies, with repeated attempts over decades to produce a shelf-stable, air-stable effervescent format.

“There’s a reason this hasn’t been done at scale by major pharmaceutical players. It’s deceptively simple chemistry, but extremely difficult to control.

“The patented system wraps active ingredients like citric acid and sodium bicarbonate with compounds such as nicotinamide and creatine, preventing the reaction from occurring until the tablet is fully immersed in water.

“This is something pharmaceutical companies have been trying to solve for years,” she says.

West says the business aims to prevent 50 million plastic bottles from entering the waste stream by 2030, and 300 million by 2050.

“We wanted to develop a product range without introducing complicated recycling that doesn’t work in the real world at scale, and is very much a greenwashing campaign created and pushed by the oil and gas industry.

“The balls are housed in certified home-compostable card packaging, specifically formulated without plastic laminates. So they can be put in your home compost, or if necessary, recycled.

“Even the inks on the box are biodegradable and water-based, and we’re looking at algae-derived inks next,” she says.

West says the product has been developed alongside a growing community of early supporters, with more than 15,000 people following the brand across mailing lists and social platforms and actively contributing feedback during testing.

She says the company has plans to expand into functional beverage formats, using natural New Zealand ingredients like manuka, kawakawa and kiwifruit extracts.

She says they are targeting $1 million revenue in FY27 and longer term, are aiming to be a $1 billion annual turnover export business.

“The global step back from ‘sustainability’ doesn’t represent what the general public actually wants. People are aware of the multiple threats facing our environment and the impacts they will have on our way of life - they want businesses to take greater action. The feedback we’ve had so far has been very encouraging and while it certainly won’t be easy to convince people to give up the bottle, it’s a very easy to explain why we exist.

“The new format removes the water and plastic, cutting shipping volume by over 99%, so we can export 100 times more product in the same space, with the same value but a fraction of the carbon footprint,” she says.

West says the reduction in shipping volume fundamentally alters export economics, allowing significantly more product to be shipped at the same value with a fraction of the logistics cost.

The first four flavours in the new range will be available for order online at incrediballs.com for consumers from February 16, with new ranges set to be added regularly.

West says initial interest from supermarkets and offshore markets has been strong, with major trans-Tasman FMCG retailers expressing interest in the range.

She says while the company will initially focus on direct-to-consumer sales to build brand equity and understand their customer, they want Incrediballs to become a mainstream drink option.

“We’re not trying to be niche or a travel product. We want to be present on every drinks aisle,” says West.

The company plans to initially work with a small number of independent retailers alongside its direct-to-consumer launch, using early feedback to refine flavours, packaging and usage before broader FMCG and export rollout.

Notes:

[1] Production of polyethylene terephthalate bottles worldwide. Accessible here.

[2] Worldwide Soft Drink Market Size. US$0.85tn converted to NZD. Accessible here.

[3] Popping the bottle. (n.d.). UNDP. https://www.undp.org/popping-the-bottle

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